Anyone can run a successful direct mail campaign with an unlimited budget. The real challenge is achieving the same kind of results with limited funds.
The digital color printing technologies available today are truly impressive in terms of image and color quality, highly personalized one-to-one marketing capabilities, and even allowing for last-minute text and image changes while meeting impossible deadlines. For direct mailers and marketers, digital color printing technology works well with multiple media channels, enabling the coordination of email blasts and/or telemarketing efforts to boost the impact — and response rates — of a direct mail campaign.
But as we know, all of this magic costs money. In tough economic times, direct mailers are compelled to find ways to get results on limited budgets.
Creative Production Technologies Offer Effective Alternative Options
Begin by considering your target audience. Highly personalized one-to-one marketing campaigns work well when your audience is relatively small and clearly identified, and when the product or service you're offering carries a price tag large enough so only one or a few sales will cover the cost of a pricey campaign. The real estate market is a good fit, where one property will be offered to only a few carefully qualified shoppers. Luxury resorts, ocean cruises and adventure vacations are also good candidates.
However, when you're trying to reach a broader audience to make an offer with a more universal appeal, less expensive but still customized options may be better suited to your needs and can keep you on budget.
For mailings going out to thousands of prospects, hundreds of thousands or even millions, one tried-and-true method of reaching out on a personal level is to employ offset print technologies to preprint the mailers to the highest quality standards. With offset printing, the more pieces printed, the less the per-item cost. Once printed, each piece can be personalized by adding monochrome laser or ink-jet printing.
It's important not to lose sight of the fact that full-color digital variable print is considerably more costly than black-only digital printing. In most cases, the use of monochrome variable print is just as effective in generating response.
Another way to keep costs moderate is to use self-mailers, which eliminate the expense of separately printed envelopes and lettershop inserting. The good news is that self-mailers need not be the flimsy and often awkward-looking items of the past. What you save on envelopes can be applied to developing a self-mailer printed on high-quality glossy paper stock and can even include a gift card.
The digital color printing technologies available today are truly impressive in terms of image and color quality, highly personalized one-to-one marketing capabilities, and even allowing for last-minute text and image changes while meeting impossible deadlines. For direct mailers and marketers, digital color printing technology works well with multiple media channels, enabling the coordination of email blasts and/or telemarketing efforts to boost the impact — and response rates — of a direct mail campaign.
But as we know, all of this magic costs money. In tough economic times, direct mailers are compelled to find ways to get results on limited budgets.
Creative Production Technologies Offer Effective Alternative Options
Begin by considering your target audience. Highly personalized one-to-one marketing campaigns work well when your audience is relatively small and clearly identified, and when the product or service you're offering carries a price tag large enough so only one or a few sales will cover the cost of a pricey campaign. The real estate market is a good fit, where one property will be offered to only a few carefully qualified shoppers. Luxury resorts, ocean cruises and adventure vacations are also good candidates.
However, when you're trying to reach a broader audience to make an offer with a more universal appeal, less expensive but still customized options may be better suited to your needs and can keep you on budget.
For mailings going out to thousands of prospects, hundreds of thousands or even millions, one tried-and-true method of reaching out on a personal level is to employ offset print technologies to preprint the mailers to the highest quality standards. With offset printing, the more pieces printed, the less the per-item cost. Once printed, each piece can be personalized by adding monochrome laser or ink-jet printing.
It's important not to lose sight of the fact that full-color digital variable print is considerably more costly than black-only digital printing. In most cases, the use of monochrome variable print is just as effective in generating response.
Another way to keep costs moderate is to use self-mailers, which eliminate the expense of separately printed envelopes and lettershop inserting. The good news is that self-mailers need not be the flimsy and often awkward-looking items of the past. What you save on envelopes can be applied to developing a self-mailer printed on high-quality glossy paper stock and can even include a gift card.
